It may be difficult to imagine Rafic
Hariri’s ultimate sacrifice on 14 February 2005 standing in history like the
murder of the Mahatma on 30 January 1948. One has learnt with Karl Marx that
‘history never repeats itself, except perhaps as a farce’, and with the French
motto, that ‘comparisons are no reason’. Still, the argument that Hariri is to
Lebanon and the Middle East what the Mahatma was to India may be defended in
more than one way. There was hardly a more peaceful soul in the Arab world than
the former Lebanese Prime Minister: he was simply unable to conceive violence as
a tool for policy. Not only did he never use violence against rivals or enemies
in his formidable political life, but he has always refused to get drawn, in a
country and region where violence is a daily occurrence, into a process that
might turn into bloodshed. Even his opposition to President Emile Lahoud,
which was real and palpable, never developed into an attitude which might be
conducive to an armed confrontation. And like Gandhi, his killers did not have
any scruple in resorting to violence to get rid of him.

Non-violence prevailing on the political
scene is therefore the critical test for those who, like us and over half the
Lebanese population on March 14, 2005, have adopted Hariri as the icon of a
fight that will lead to the restoration of democracy in Lebanon, after having
succeeded in the battle of sovereignty. March 14 is both a fulfillment
and a message: a fulfillment of the silent and steady resistance of the Lebanese
people to humiliation, domination and corruption over the previous fifteen
years; and a message of active non-violence from Lebanon to the region and the
world, so that people like us and our friends in the streets of Beirut should
from now on take the political lead in society.

The current political class does not correspond to the
restored democratic spirit of Lebanon. One ambition commensurate with Hariri’s
sacrifice requires the change of the political scene so that it does. A
parallel, larger ambition, is to project this Lebanese message of active
non-violence across the region, starting with the establishment of a network of
similarly minded creative professionals and democratic activists across the
Middle East.

On the Lebanese scene, the current president must be held
responsible for the unconstitutional, undemocratic extension of the presidential
mandate beyond the terms designed by the Lebanese Constitution, as well as a
violation of international law. The next Lebanese president must be a woman or a
man who thinks and acts like those who stood up all day in the centre of Beirut,
on March 14, asking for truth and accountability.

Nor is the continuation of the speaker of the National
Assembly democratic after over ten years in power. All top positions in our
constitutional system need to better reflect the will of our people. This can
best be achieved by direct popular suffrage that enhances national choice over
sectarian regroupments. While one is aware that the sectarian legacy has offered
checks and balances preventing dictatorship from taking root in Lebanon, it has
also acted as a systematic block to the fulfillment of the merit and equality of
citizens. A decisive task is to reduce the sectarian space by enhancing the
personal and national creative talent of all Lebanese on the basis of merit and
equality. Renewing and enriching the democratic experience requires the
appointment of our constitutional leaders by direct popular vote. There are
other ways to increase the democratic circle of Lebanon in the world: with
Lebanese here and across the planet, a Lebanese Vote Abroad initiative was
started to respond to the deafening call of our families and friends abroad to
make their voice heard in their country.

On the larger Arab and Middle Eastern scene, freedom and
human rights must become both the goals and means of the democratic renewal, and
require similarly minded citizens across the region to repeat the Lebanese
non-violent experience, in contrast with the association of our country with a
meaningless and brutal civil war for a quarter of the 20th century.
This means peaceful alternation at the top, and the organization of national,
free, inclusive elections for the choice of all leaders in the Arab world.

Lebanon in the past three months has inspired the region in
ways unprecedented in history, and peaceful sit-ins and demonstrations have
taken place in Bahrain, Cairo, Riyadh, Damascus and Tunis. With the freedom
achieved in Lebanon, we need to active nascent networks of free citizens across
the region, starting with the release of all prisoners of conscience, and the
organization of further non-violent action to change the current state of
irresponsible and brutal government, from Nouakchott to Islamabad, passing
through Cairo, Jerusalem, Damascus and Riyadh. Some of this may at first seem to
go beyond the image of Rafic Hariri as a Lebanese leader. But his regional and
international image is well established. With his assassination, one which is
rooted in the retrograde and brutal order in the Middle East, one should not
hesitate to project his gentle manners, and his firm belief in human rights, so
that they transcend Lebanon and inspire all democrats in the region.

The confluence of sharply contrasting
factors, domestically and internationally, makes the developing fight for
independence and democracy in Lebanon the more challenging for those who are
determined, in a Hariri-like spirit, never to resort to violence to win their
political battles. Some holders of the old order will not hesitate to inject
blood-shedding into an equation that Hariri was never ready to even contemplate
as a remote tool to prevail. Already five bombs have shattered since February 14
that peaceful course in Beirut, and those responsible for these crimes, like the
assassins of Hariri, need to be arrested and tried.

If our challenge is won, his sacrifice
may herald a Middle East where his consistent refusal of the use of force for
political ends could slowly transform him into a Mahatma Gandhi figure for
Lebanon and the region. Much has been achieved since the brutal killing of
Lebanon’s most impressive Prime Minister three months ago. These achievements
are, and should be, the tip of the democratic and non-violent iceberg.

*Chibli Mallat is a lawyer and EU Jean
Monnet Professor at St Joseph’s University in Beirut, Lebanon. He has been
active in the democratic revolution under way in the Middle East.